An edition of And Then There Were None (1939)

And Then There Were None

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  • 4.2 (134 ratings) ·
  • 1,208 Want to read
  • 79 Currently reading
  • 241 Have read

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Last edited by Lisa
August 6, 2022 | History
An edition of And Then There Were None (1939)

And Then There Were None

  • 4.2 (134 ratings) ·
  • 1,208 Want to read
  • 79 Currently reading
  • 241 Have read

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song, which serves as a major plot point. The US edition was not released until December 1939; its American reprints and adaptations were all re-titled And Then There Were None, the last five words in the original American version of the nursery rhyme ("Ten Little Indians").

In the novel, a group of people are lured into coming to an island under different pretexts, e.g., offers of employment, to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet old friends. All have been complicit in the deaths of other human beings, but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests and two servants who are present are "charged" with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night, and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, and gradually all ten are killed in turn, each in a manner that seems to parallel the deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the time of the apparent last death. A confession, in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible.

It is Christie's best-selling novel; with more than 100 million copies sold, it is also the world's best-selling mystery and one of the best-selling books of all time. Publications International lists the novel as the seventh best-selling title.

Publish Date
Publisher
Audio Editions
Language
English

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Previews available in: French Chinese Portuguese English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Dix petits nègres
Dix petits nègres
2019-07, Hachette Livre, Hachette
Paperback in French
Cover of: 无人生还
无人生还: And Then There Were None
2018, Xin xing chu ban she
hardcover in Chinese
Cover of: E Nao Sobrou Nenhum
E Nao Sobrou Nenhum
2012, Globo de Bolso
paperback in Portuguese - 4th reimpressao
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
2009, Impress
hardcover in English
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
2007, Harper
paperback in English - Agatha Christie Signature Edition (2)
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
2001, FollettBound
in English
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
2001, Audio Editions
Digital Audio in English
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
1971, Pocket Books
in English
Cover of: Ten Little Niggers
Ten Little Niggers
1968-04, Collins/Fontana Books
paperback in English - fifth impression
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
1966, Dodd, Mead & Company
Hardcover in English
Cover of: And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
1945, Grosset & Dunlap
Library Binding in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Copyright Date
2001

The Physical Object

Format
Digital Audio

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL26759991M
Goodreads
44296946

Work Description

And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the children's counting rhyme and minstrel song, which serves as a major element of the plot. A US edition was released in January 1940 with the title And Then There Were None, which is taken from the last five words of the song. All successive American reprints and adaptations use that title, except for the Pocket Books paperbacks published between 1964 and 1986, which appeared under the title Ten Little Indians. UK editions continued to use the original title until the current definitive title appeared with a reprint of the 1963 Fontana Paperback in 1985.

In 1990 Crime Writers' Association ranked And Then There Were None 19th in their The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list. In 1995 in a similar list Mystery Writers of America ranked the novel 10th. In September 2015, to mark her 125th birthday, And Then There Were None was named the "World's Favourite Christie" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate. In the "Binge!" article of Entertainment Weekly Issue #1343-44 (26 December 2014–3 January 2015), the writers picked And Then There Were None as an "EW favorite" on the list of the "Nine Great Christie Novels".



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Excerpts

In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye throught the political news in the Times.
added by Lisa.

first sentence

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
August 6, 2022 Edited by Lisa move to correct work
March 31, 2020 Edited by Lisa Edited without comment.
February 6, 2020 Edited by lisaBot moving edition(s) to primary work
March 7, 2019 Edited by Lisa Moved edition to primary work.
March 7, 2019 Created by Lisa Added new book.